


Fall Into You

by persephone20



Series: the Haunted series [6]
Category: The Vampire Diaries
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-13
Updated: 2011-08-20
Packaged: 2017-10-19 08:43:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/199014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephone20/pseuds/persephone20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So season 2 was a bit much, wasn't it? Still, this is the important information you need to know: Katherine breaks Stefan and Elena up, Klaus takes Stefan away, and Katherine skips town. Caught up? Okay. Good to go. This is the fifth story in the Haunted series, an AU where Elena is involved with both brothers, and it's another long one, taking up right after the finale of season 2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted as 'Season Two/Three tie-in' but has been edited extensively to include extra scenes and have a chance of me getting past the writer's block. Also, in this world, Anna never died, she and Jeremy are still happy together, except not so much, because Jenna has just been killed...

_“It’s okay to love them both. I did.”_

“Damon,” Elena murmurs under her breath. “Where are you?”

“Right here.” He's smiling ironically at her as she starts and turns around to where he is suddenly filling the space behind her. Her eyes gaze up and down his body. No sign of a werewolf bite, no sign of any lingering illness. Katherine's cure worked.

She tries a smile, but it's shaky. “I’m going to get used to that eventually.”

“No doubt,” Damon replies. His face is straight, no hint of mirth. “Any word from Stefan?”

Elena shakes her head. “Damon, I...”

“Well, we’d best get on it. God only knows what trouble he’s managed to get into in our absence.” He rolls his eyes, and Elena knows it to be a show to hide the concern he's feeling underneath even as he starts walking away from her, at normal pace this time.

“Damon.” He half turns, and looks at her quizzically. She continues, “It’s not like we can go out haring after him. We don’t even know the first place to look.”

“Ah,” Damon says, before pointing to his nose. “You don’t. I do.” He opens the front door. “Ladies first.”

Elena walks toward him, aware of his eyes on her with each step she takes. It's getting harder to take and keep an even breath. She pauses, noticing suddenly a strange look in Damon’s eyes, behind the facade she knows he keeps there in order to keep himself safe. Most of the time, there isn't such an obvious chink. That she can see it there now snaps her out of her own disorientation. She's not the only one who stands to lose Stefan if they can't do this right.

“I need to call Stefan.”

Damon pauses, evidently about to argue against it, but something he sees in her expression widens that chink. He's not just looking out for himself, Elena realises. He's looking out for her, too. That expression is very clear in his eyes, in the way that he holds her, just the way that his body is turned towards her as he guys her back through the hall, into the living room, directs her to one of the couches and then sits there with her, his hand settling over hers.

Well. That just means she has to look out for him too. Elena shifts, trying to find her phone in her pocket. It's an attempt filled with clumsiness, born out of nervousness, and she fumbles it.

"Take a breath." This from Damon. "It's going to be alright."

Elena pins her eyes to the hand on hers. It's the safest of all other options. Then, she dials.

The first call rings out. Elena frowns, and calls Stefan again. When he doesn't answer that time, she pulls up the message display on her phone and texts him. After waiting the longest 10 minutes of her life, Elena leans against Damon, very gingerly.

"What if he doesn't call back?" Her voice is fragile, and she hates that the sound of it is coming from her. However, that just makes Damon's arms tighten around her. She tries to take strength from that but, after the events of the past few days, she's just too tightly wound for it.

She almost jumps out of her skin when the familiar ring tone of her phone accompanied the sudden vibration in her hand.

“Hello?” she says. "Hello?!"

“Elena.” The voice on the other end is a rasp of the voice she recognises, but recognise it she does.

“Stefan!” She gasps, half turning from Damon, cradling the phone to her ear as though that would bring him closer. “Where are you?”

“Katherine delivered the cure then? Everything’s fine?”

“Yes, that’s what I texted you. Are you okay? You sound... different.” Damon's frowning and Elena's just trying hard not to think of the worst. Telling herself that the worst is over now. It has to be. Even so, her heartbeat's speeding up, and she knows Damon is able to hear it, even before his hand tightens around hers and he moves himself closer to her in support.

"I'm leaving Mystic Falls, Elena."

"Leaving? What do you mean leaving?"

“Pretty what it sounds like. Look, Elena...” There's a rustling sound through the phone, as though Stefan's shuffling around. “I knew you’d leap to a worst conclusion if I sent you a text message. Wouldn’t be very boyfriendly of me either, would it?”

“Stefan, what are you talking about?” Elena says the words very slowly, very carefully, almost as if the answer to this question isn't about to break her heart. She's not even aware Damon's protective presence anymore, nor the thought that she's not the only one who stands to lose Stefan.

“I can't do this right now, Elena. I'll explain when I can but... right now... it's goodbye.” The phone clicks before Elena can make any reply, but that doesn't stop her.

“Stefan? Stefan, no!” She looks to Damon in horror, her eyes wide in grief that hasn't properly registered yet, as though Damon can still do something to stop this. “Stefan?” Her voice trembles, closer to tears this time. Only Damon's observative enough to note the way Stefan's voice broke the instant before he hung up the phone, but it's not the most important fact of the moment.

With utmost gentleness, Damon plucks the phone out of Elena's hands.

“No!” she wails, not about the phone, but about the conversation, and Damon has to swallow at watching her in this much pain, the second time in less than three days. Elena is shaking her head, moaning, “No,” with just the slightest incline at the end to make it sound like a question. Damon doesn't need anymore encouragement than that. Reaching out, he takes her into his arms. She didn’t fight, doesn't have the strength of it. Instead, she crumples into herself, like she's unable to hold herself upright anymore, and that's so much worse than if she had fought.

“Come,” he says quietly, almost embarrassed to have overheard the entire conversation, and wondering what the fuck Stefan thinks he is doing right now. But that's not his concern right now. “Let’s go back up to bed.”

She cries against him that night. He doesn't think either one of them gets much sleep, even in the brief periods of time when she goes from crying to silence. In those times, he holds her more tightly, more worried about what she might be holding inside when she's not giving out any obvious signs to direct him.

**

It's like Jenna all over again, except it's worse. It's so much worse.

Jenna is dead. She supposes they're going to have to work out some sort of funeral for her. Elena doesn't even know where she's supposed to get the money for that, or how she's even expected to function well enough to organise something like that.

Stefan's really gone. Their break-up is real this time. He hadn't even given her a reason. He hadn't even given her a reason...

And as soon as Elena wakes up again, she can't hide from any of it anymore.

“Morning.”

Elena’s hand immediately reaches for her face. She can't even begin to imagine what her eyes look like after crying steadily for hours the day before. Almost crying again now, before Damon let her know that he, too, was awake. Bashfully she manages to make her eyes travel up from the white sheets of his bed to the familiar face attached to the arm that is rested underneath her.

“Hey.” In order to have an excuse to avert her eyes, she looks down to his hand on the other side of her, near the edge of the bed. “You probably want your hand back...”

“That’s okay. Not like I need the blood flow anyway.”

He is peering at her. Not moving his arm at all. While a part of her wants desperately to cuddle back into that safe form of the man who loves her and is still here, the smarter part of Elena—a part that Elena had wilfully wishes on occasion would just run off and die—reminds her of her responsibilities. Jeremy. Alaric. Bonnie and Caroline. They still had to be on the lookout for Klaus. Without Stefan, that fight suddenly became that much harder. Things kept on piling up.

“Hey...” That's Damon’s voice, breaking into the introspective that her mind is just too inclined towards this morning. He's now watchful of her in a completely different way. "Come back to me."

Elena swallows, blinks her eyes a couple of times, and nods firmly just once. “Yeah,” she says. “Can’t really afford to fall apart today.” Her lips thin.

“That's not what I meant. Anyway,” Damon adds, and his voice goes from gentle to heavy with irony. “This is Mystic Falls. There’s not going to be a day this century when you can afford to fall apart. Certainly hasn’t been since I first lived here.” Still, despite his words, he draws her closer to him, letting her know that he is still there.

The instinct to set aside her responsibility wars with awareness that she must face up to those obligations once more. Very regretfully, she suggests, “I should probably get back home to Jeremy.”

“Yeah. I should probably let you,” he replies, eying her without moving.

Elena looks at the floor for shoes, but there don't appear to be any on Damon’s bedroom floor. She must have left them downstairs. Hopefully she’ll find them there. Otherwise, she supposes it was just as easy to drive home bare foot.

Running a distracted hand through her hair, Elena turns just once to look at Damon, notices both that his naked and his eyes are red-rimmed. She's about to say something about it when he flashes out of bed to take her into his arms again. Before she can think, his lips are on hers, and he's kissing her passionately, and Elena can't think, can't move, can't do anything but kiss him back just as intently because that is what absolutely everything in her body is absolutely screaming at her to do. When it is over, Elena feels like she needs Damon’s steady support again, with completely different reason behind this swoon.

“Anything you need today...” he says, his eyes boring into hers, even as he leaves the sentence open-ended. He's giving her that soft smile that is only for her and, as short for breath as Elena already feels, this takes away the last of it. She bites her lip to keep from smiling, then releases it. It occurs to her that, just maybe, she deserves this little bit of happiness for the rest of the shit that the universe has put her through.

“I'll call you,” she says and, after she walks away from him, her on the doorframe, her eyes linger on him.

**

Alaric looks up from where he sits on the couch when Elena walks in. It's clear that she's been crying, but he doesn't say anything about that. It's clear that he's been crying too. Elena just walks up to where he's sitting on the couch and hugs him. He doesn't hesitate in returning the hug.

“So, where did you stay last night? Over with Stefan?”

Only the fact that Alaric does not know about the minefield of emotions his unwitting question unwittingly provokes manages to keep Elena from bursting into new tears.

Her voice is very low as she answers, "He's left town, Ric. I don't know if he'll be coming back."

"Left town?" Alaric pulls away from the hug they've fallen into in order to gaze into her eyes. He reads there, this time, that this grieving is not just for her dead aunt but for her lost lover. He holds her tighter and Elena tucks her head in under Alaric's chin. His voice is a rumble from there, but she can understand his words clearly.

"Tell me, what happened?"

No longer a teacher, not so much as a father or uncle figure, Elena tells him everything that had happened: Damon biting her at the ‘Gone with the Wind’ screening, Katherine coming to the boarding house with a cure, Stefan’s phone call, Damon holding her while she cried herself to sleep. She leaves out her own emotions towards Damon. Things are already too complicated as they stand without going into the relationship that she has with the two brothers.

“He called, to say he was leaving Mystic Falls and to break up. Just like that?” Alaric raises an eyebrow, for that doesn't sound like the Stefan he knows at all.

“Well... yeah.” Elena sniffs, then looks away, embarrassed. There was sometimes a box of tissues on the table next to the couch, but she can't see it there now. Alaric taps her shoulder, passing the box from the table on the other side of the couch. Elena blows her nose, then sniffs once more. “I’m sorry, Alaric. You don’t need this right now. Me and Jer both appreciate so much—”

“Please,” Alaric cuts her off. “It’s the least I can do. Plus, it’s what Jenna would have wanted. It’s what _I_ want.”

Elena nods her head miserably. “I suppose I should call Bonnie and Caroline.”

Alaric picks himself off the couch. “Yeah,” he replies, giving her space. “I suppose you should.”

**

Leaving the Gilbert house, Alaric picks out his mobile and calls one of the only numbers in his phone left that still has an alive person attached to the other end who was likely to pick up.

“Damon. Where are you?”

“Boarding house, Ric. After that mess-up with Liz yesterday, I’m not likely to be leaving any time soon.”

“Alright. Stay there. I’ll be over in a minute.”

True to his word, Alaric walks to the boarding house in just a little over the time it takes for Damon to pour two glasses of scotch on the rocks, drink one, pour another and leave an almost empty bottle next to an unopened bottle on top of the coffee table.

“Pour you a drink?” Damon asks as Alaric arrives, before handing the first scotch poured to Ric.

“No. Thanks. I’ve done enough of that.” Jenna was dead, yes, but drinking himself into oblivion wasn’t going to bring her back.

Damon shrugs, tossing back the scotch in the first glass, before picking up the second one he’d intended for himself. “It’s always after midday somewhere,” he decides, eyes flashing before taking another swig. “So what _can_ I do for you?” he asks, punctuating the question with the heavy setting down of the glass tumbler back onto the coffee table.

“Well, you can be straight with me. I don’t have a whole lot of other people left now.”

“Unfortunate, but true,” Damon replies, with a nod.

“I understand Stefan’s gone too?”

Damon’s eyes flash again, and Alaric understands that he's walking on potentially dangerous ground. “And _I_ understand that you’ve seen Elena this morning,” Damon says, leaning close to Alaric, before propelling himself back towards the open curtains at the front of the house. “Yes, he’s decided to leave Mystic Falls. Thought it would be an incredibly good idea to pass on that information by manner of phone call,” he finishes, effectively taking the spotlight off whatever he might think of the situation.

“And you think that’s the whole story?” Alaric leans forward, his elbows on his knees, genuinely interested to know what Damon thinks of his brother’s sudden disappearance.

“I think this town makes everyone crazy,” Damon mutters, staring out into the front yard absently. He then spins around. “But he’s probably safer out there than back here.”

“Uh. Huh.” Alaric considers this, then discounts it. “And that wouldn’t have anything to do with Elena spending the night here with you last night?”

“Come now, Ric, if you’re going to accuse me of something, you’d be best to use a lot less words.”

But Damon doesn't look anywhere near so jovial as his words are suggesting, and Alaric well knows that look well. In fact, Damon looks a lot as though he thinks this is none of Alaric's business. Not one to step on toes, Alaric might have stepped back at that point, except he was pretty sure that this did constitute as his business. Lifting his hands, Alaric sits back on his chair. “I’m just saying. If Stefan’s decided to leave town on his own, so be it.” He pauses. “But we still don’t know anything about where Klaus is. Or Elijah.” Alaric pauses again. “It’d be stupid not to assume the worst given the last couple of days.”

“Stefan called Elena so that she wouldn’t think anything untoward had happened. I heard the phone conversation myself.” But, belying his words, Damon’s eyebrows start to come down in a frown over his nose.

Nothing that, Alaric interprets its meaning correctly, and leaves it at that. “Well great. Think I might have one of those drinks now. I’ll pour for myself,” he adds, since Damon still had the appearance of one in his thoughts, where he stands over by the window.

Damon narrows his eyes. “Pour me another one too,” holding out his glass.

The drink Alaric hands to him is drunk more slowly than the last two. For a while, there's comfortable silence between the two men. Alaric, having passed on his concerns to someone more equipped to deal with them, more likely spends these minutes more comfortably than Damon. Perhaps not. Those minutes just give him time for his thoughts to dwell back to Jenna. Even though he’s had a couple of days of personal leave, he’s managed to have very little time to himself, or sober, at all.

“I’m gonna move in there.” Damon’s head shoots up at Alaric's unexpected admission; he looks at Alaric sharply. “If Elena and Jeremy want me to. I’m basically living there right now anyway.”

Damon looks back down to his drink. “That makes sense,” he grumbles. “Now Jenna’s not around.” He looks up sharply at Alaric as he says this, maybe expecting Alaric to burst into tears or something, but Alaric waves it off. It's the truth, after all. Wasn’t like he could hide from it forever.

“Last thing we need is social services getting involved,” Alaric adds. He pauses but, in the end, he decides to get on with it. “If I’m going to be acting as Elena’s carer, she’s not to become another Andrea Star.”

Damon just stares at Alaric for a while. “Another...?” He shakes his head. “The things you don't know... She’s not going to be another Andrea, Ric. I love her.”

“The things I don't know?” Alaric asks, watching Damon's facial reactions over the top of his cup. Like Elena, he notes that Damon's facade is littered with cracks; an almost unprecedented sight.

"Yes, Ric. Contrary to what you might think, you don't know everything that goes on in this town." Skipping the rest of the bravado act, Damon rolls his eyes and says, more quietly, "Elena and I have been dating for months."

"But you and Elena..." Alaric clears his throat. "I mean... what about Elena and Stefan...?"

"Yes. They have too."

The look Alaric gives Damon is queer. "You have been dating them... both?"

Damon's eyes grow wide. "Of course I haven't! What kind of a pervert do you think I am? Dating my own brother?!" The rest of his drink goes down his throat with that suggestion, and Damon glares at Alaric as if that's his fault.

"What?" Alaric's face expresses the unfairness of this judgement just passed on him. "You said you were dating Elena. And 'them too'..."

"I meant," Damon says, trying very hard to be patient, "Stefan was dating Elena at the same time."

Now that he has the right information, Alaric sinks into thought over this. "Oh."

"Yes. Oh."

"No... not Andrea Star."

"No." Another glare. Then, "Imagine Elena's upset when she realised what I was doing there. Meanwhile, I was only trying to keep myself strong in case of trouble. There weren't a lot of other options. Look at what we were facing!"

Alaric rather believes 'upset' to be a mild word for what Elena likely to have expressed at the time. His glance at Damon from the corner of his eye indicates his surprise that he and Elena got through that particular problem. But then, maybe Alaric doesn't know Elena as well as he thinks he does. For her to have kept this a secret... from all of them... for months..?

As Damon studies his empty drink with a frown, Alaric supposes it's good to know the lengths to which this man will go to to keep them safe, especially since he is the only Salvatore brother in town now. He doesn't believe that the danger is past yet, not at all.


	2. Chapter 2

Stefan isn't back for the funeral. Damon stands behind her and she can tell, from the way people slant glances in their direction, that they think she's merely traded from one brother to the other now. If it wasn't Jenna's funeral, perhaps there would have been things said to her face about this decision. If there was anything said that day, it was said behind other peoples' hands. 

Jeremy and Elena have to stand at the entry way to the town hall that Carol Lockwood has insisted they use for Jenna's wake. Alaric hovers awkwardly nearby, like he's not sure whether he should be standing with them, or whether he should stand away, support Elena and Jeremy or not encroach on their space. Everyone in the town comes, of course. So few of them haven't been touched by a tragedy of their own now; everyone's sympathetic. Long before the end of it, Elena just wishing that everyone would go away. From the look in Jeremy's face, he's approaching that place as well. Damon and Anna stand off to the side a little bit. He always glances her way when she looks up, and she is able to take strength from that.

Elena hasn't spoken to Jeremy properly since this all happened, or to Bonnie either, doesn't even know where to start. She feels like it's all her fault, and can't stand the idea of Jeremy confirming that suspicion in words. They avoid each other in the halls of their house in the infrequent times when Elena is there. She's there often enough to have noticed Anna seems to have moved into Jeremy's room. Elena is happy that he has that at least.

It's probably that same sense of guilt that keeps Bonnie away from her. Only an awkward smile passes between the two friends as Bonnie steps inside the town hall to show her continued support. Funnily enough, Caroline has no problem with launching herself at Elena. The blonde girl has become a vampire, and even that has hardly changed her. Elena doesn't know why she expected the rest of the deaths in the town to do anything more.

"Oh, Elena, I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Is she okay?" Caroline asks, turning to Jeremy to ask again before realising her faux pas in asking that of him. "Are _you_ okay, Jeremy?"

"Fine," Jeremy mutters, before walking off.

It's like their mom and dad have just died all over again. Every moment increases her heartbreak, and Elena just shakes her head, stiffens her jaw, and tries not to cry. 

Caroline approaches Damon after Anna has walked off with Jeremy.

“She doesn't seem to like me,” Caroline says of Anna, tipping her head to the side. “I wonder why.”

Damon doesn't say anything.

Carline starts saying, "I was talking to my mom..." when Damon turns on her, eyes flashing.

“Maybe it's because you're annoying, and everything is about you at Jenna's funeral,” Damon answers of her earlier question, staring at her pointedly.

Caroline giggles a little nervously, like the words have hit home. She doesn't pursue that line of questioning any further. “I was going to say something that wasn't about me,” she says, a little bit defensively. “Of course, it's not about Jenna either...”

“Then save it.” Damon's eyes are fixed on Elena once again.

Caroline doesn't say anything for a little while, but she doesn't move away either. She's breathing even though she doesn't need to, and the sound of it, his continued awareness of her in his personal space, causes him to sigh and glare at her.

“It's just that I had a talk with my mom,” Caroline volunteers, unasked. “She's not going to hunt us anymore. I thought... maybe... with Klaus and Stefan out of town... that we could finally get around to convincing the town elders that vampires don't mean them any harm... anymore.”

Her lashes lower to cover her eyes but, when Damon still doesn't say anything, she looks up at him again.

“You're right,” he says, starting to move away from her. “That's not about Jenna.”

Everyone but the very late have finally trickled in by the time that Damon stalks up to Elena and takes her arm. She starts from a conversation she wasn't really paying any attention to, and stares at him uncomprehending as he leads her away with a charming apology. 

"What are you doing?" she asks him.

"Getting you out of here," Damon replies grimly.

Elena doesn't disagree with the sentiment, and Damon had managed to excuse her with more respect than she would have been able to summon. 

A part of her feels awful, laying judgment on the people who have attended Jenna's wake, but they are somehow expecting something of her now, and Elena simply doesn't know how to give it. Being with Damon is like being with herself, being with family, almost, except that she has to try to make herself forget that family dies, and boyfriends leave. Even so, he's the easiest person for her to be around, simply because he doesn't _expect_. 

Getting into his car and driving away from the wake, just driving, reminds Elena of the drive Damon took her on when Jenna was in hospital. Her aunt had been so good to them, taking care of them when there was nobody else to do it, and this was how she'd been repaid. With hospital visits and, eventually, death. Damon's hand moves from the gear shift to Elena's hand and holds it tightly as she cries silently beside him. There has been so much crying in the last few days. It's a wonder to Elena that either her or Damon have any tears left.

They are far away from the rest of civilisation when Damon stops the car, on the top of a hill that looks over houses and shops and people, but far away enough that Elena doesn't even think Damon's vampire hearing can pick any of that up. 

They walk away from the car, finding a grassy clearing in the middle of trees. Elena lies down on the grass and looks up as if she might find answers in the sky. Why did Stefan leave her? Why did Jenna have to die? Why did Katherine have to come to Mystic Falls and thereby lead every other vampire in a merry chase to find them. To find her? Why does everyone she love have to leave?

Damon sits against a tree trunk for a while. He's watching her while she's not aware of it. He doesn't bother asking if she's alright, he knows she's not alright. Neither of them are. But, as he watches, that she's sinking deeper and deeper into her thoughts, each second taking her, further and further away from him. And maybe he's being selfish, but he doesn't want that. He's not worried about losing her anymore, not really, but a century and a half of learned understanding is hard to just put aside.

He moves away from the trunk of the tree and positons himself so that he's on his side beside her, looking down into her eyes. His hand palms the side of her face, thumb wiping an errant tear from the corner of her eye.

"Hey," he whispers and, from somewhere, she manages to summon a small smile in reply.

"Hey."

Her head leans into his hand, eyelids flickering slightly. He puts his hand on her knee to draw her back to him, and it is him she sees, him she is staring at when she pushes herself up off the grass, inches closer towards him, touches his lips lightly with her own.

They pull back only so far as their foreheads can still touch. He swallows, not daring to look directly at her, irrationally afraid that suddenly she'll see the monster she used to think he was.

"Are you sure?" he asks, not bothering to clear the huskiness out of his throat. He feels raw around the edges and he knows she can feel it.

Forehead still pressed together gently, he feels her nod. "I...I think- I _need_ this," she says, the words tripping out of her mouth, still heavy and unsure. He feels something in his chest give a painful squeeze - she's not sure. She thinks she is, but she's no - she's confused and hurt and lost, and he knows this, but God, she's so warm and alive in his arms. His eyes flicker up and down her body, even as his hand skims down her torso, into the dip of her waist. The kiss he presses against her lips is equally as gentle as the one she grazed against his mouth; it's an apology, even if she doesn't know it.

The kiss goes on, deepening as he feels her kisses gradually gather more urgency. Damon feels as though he is tethering her to the ground with the hand that's grasping her knee, now her thigh, feels indecently good knowing that he's the one she's clinging to. His fingers gentle their hold, skimming the petal soft skin of her inner thigh, and the pulse he hasn't possessed in more than a hundred years starts to race; he can feel her heat against the back of his knuckles and he doesn't believe in heaven, but the sound of her moan pressing against his tongue when he finally presses his fingers against her wet heat...

He opens his mouth against hers, to ask, even though it's too late but she beats him too it, big brown eyes fluttering open to stare into his own. "It's alright," she tells him, knowing his question before he asks it. He feels her body grip two of his fingers and a low moan tears it's way out of his chest and in response she lets out a strained sound that gets stuck in the back of her throat. He unravels.

They're kissing again, frantic and heated, and somewhere in the back of Damon's mind he has to remember to hold back - she's no where near as strong as he is. But they're panting into each other's mouths and it's becoming harder to think about anything at all.

They're so close, breathing each others' air, and her arousal heavy in the air, making his blood spike. Her fingers are like talons around his forearm, clutching tightly when he crooks his fingers and presses up gently, thumb circling and pads rubbing.

"Damon!" she gasps, mouth falling open, neck straining as his fingers find that swelling, rigged tissue - her hips lifting up of the forest floor, hips searching out more of his touch, working to an instinctual beat while he watches her, waiting for her, pushing her towards her moment.

Her fingers tighten on even further on his arm and she gives a violent shudder that he catches on his lips. He kisses her, hard, muffling the shuddering moan that echos across his teeth, swallowing it, savoring every exhale on his tongue. He holds her tight while the aftershocks trip down her spine, kissing her slightly damp forehead all the while.

He's achingly hard in his pants, fabric stretching across his lap but it's only second to how he feels right now. Everything is buzzing - everything feels alive and electric, right, and when the words spill from his lips he can't hate himself for it. Can't dredge up enough scorn to tell himself how cliche he is. "I love you," he says. His voice is shaky, the utter truth to is words resonating through the air. And once it's left his lips he has to say it again. "I love you."

"I know," Elena says, fingers relaxed on his arm, sounding drained. "I know." Her voice catches halfway through in a sort of half sob which just makes Damon holder her tighter. It's not exactly the answer he wanted, but it's enough right now.

His own eyes are watery even before she says,

"I love you too."

*

Elena is limp by the time Damon draws her back to the Gilbert house, out of his car and up the stairs into her bedroom. It's like will alone is keeping her awake. It's been a harrowing few days.

“I'll be fine,” she tells him, as he starts to assist her with undressing. “I'm not an invalid.”

Damon mourns the spark that always stayed with her before, but he knows better than to speak of it. The idea of putting any more pressure on her now...

“Do you want me to wait out here for you while you shower?” he asks softly. Elena nods. Her gaze drops, as she disappears into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Knowing that if she made any grand gestures or movements in the bathroom, Damon would hear it right away, Elena just pauses in front of the bathroom mirror. Breathe, she tells herself, trying to make her inner voice sound strong. In her thoughts, she cannot help but think of every other time she's been in this room with the brother who's now absent. With Stefan. Stefan, who has left her. She thinks she knows better than to think he's coming back now.

Grabbing her hair from around her face, she pulls it right back, holding her breath and opening her eyes real wide as though the combination of these things might stop the swell of tears that threaten. It doesn't work. Before long, a sob escapes her lips. Not long after that, Damon is at her side.

She could have snarled at him, could have arched up that he didn't even knock. She doesn't. One sob is followed by another, and then she is in Damon's arms, clinging tightly around his neck as though holding onto him is the only way that she can still breathe.

“I'm a mess,” she says, without really thinking of what she's saying, but she's right, too. If Klaus came back to finish the rest of them off right now, he could find no better time to do it. There wouldn't be a thing she could do to stop him. She'd given it all and, in the process, had lost Jenna and managed to do something so terrible, so awful, that Stefan had decided he had to leave her. By that, she felt more defeated than by any action Klaus had committed.

Damon is speaking nonsense words in her ear, saying nothing much really, just trying to give an overriding message that everything would be okay, eventually, for whenever she happened to tune in and hear him.

Elena pulls away gently. She can't quite look at him, painfully conscious that she's spent the last several days sobbing on him.

“Why do you put up with me?” she asks, still not looking at him even as she tucks a piece of her hair self-consciously behind her ear.

He doesn't answer immediately, choosing instead to reach out and take her jaw in his palm. “Because you're amazing.”

That just makes her burst into more tears but, this time, they are good tears. She hiccups at the end, then smiles into Damon's watchful eyes.

“I'm okay. I'm not _okay_ , but I'll manage. Thank you.”

Damon doesn't say anything to that, just tips his head with a calm wistfulness that might have been more at home with his pre-vampire self. “You should have your shower,” he says.

“Come with me?” she asks, unwilling to let him go.

*

He calls Caroline back later, after the two of them have showered, and Elena is almost asleep. Caroline doesn't answer on the first ring, but it's a close thing.

"What took you so long?" Caroline asked. Then, "Mom's been asking questions about you."

Swallowing a retort about Stefan's disappearance and Jenna's murder being what 'took him so long', Damon forces himself to focus on the second statement Caroline makes.

"What's she asking?"

"Oh, you know... What your intentions are. Whether you are responsible for any of the 'animal attacks' that she's had to cover up. Whether you've glamoured her. I'm trying to put up a smoke screen here, but it's difficult to make up a story you'll go along with without you here to talk to about it." A note of pleading enters her voice, and Damon feels sorry for her. She's the youngest vampire he's encountered, certainly the youngest who's lasted beyond the first months after being turned. Damon knows he's too much in the habit of forgetting that.

"I'll come around," he says grudgingly.

"You will?"

Damon nods. Sometimes he also forgets the differences between in-person and on-phone communications. "When's a more convenient time for me to be there? When you're mom's there, or out?"

"Now's good. She's asleep right now, but she wakes up real early. We can talk, and then we can talk to her," Caroline says.

"Okay." He doesn't say goodbye before he hangs up the phone.

Walking across the room, he presses a kiss against Elena's forehead.

"You going to be alright if I go out for a little while?" he asks her.

Elena shrugs, at the same time as burying her head further into the covers. "'s not like there's any killer vampire after me right now," she murmurs.

Damon looks at her for a moment, regretfully, before he takes to her window by habit, even though Alaric's the only adult in the house, and he's hardly going to get down on Damon for looking after Elena, and leaves.

*


	3. Chapter 3

Damon doesn't speed the length from Elena's house to Caroline's. It's the first moment of time to himself that he's had in several days, and he's inclined towards stretching it out. Also, he's inclined to make some sort of sense about the things that Alaric had come to say to him before the funeral.

The other man was right that Stefan's departure was both abrupt and unexpected, especially after everything else that had gone on over the last several weeks. Apparently Katherine hadn't indicated that Stefan was in any danger, but then, Katherine was a master at not giving away all the information. And Damon couldn't believe Stefan had willingly gone away with Katherine.

Which meant... Klaus. Klaus who had been suspiciously absent since around the same time that Stefan had been missing. And all of this just after Damon had magically been recovered from his werewolf bite.

But the idea that Stefan could sacrifice himself like that... Damon swore. That was exactly the kind of thing his brother would do.

Arriving at Caroline's house gives Damon something else to focus on while he tries to twist his mind around what he's supposed to do if he's right about Stefan. When he gets to Caroline's place, he doesn't know whether to enter Caroline's house via one of the windows, or to knock on the front door. Caroline takes the issue out of his hands by waiting outside the front door.

"Thanks for coming," she says in a whisper that is only loud enough for Damon's hearing to pick up.

He just nods once, something Caroline sees easily with her newly increased night sight.

"I don't want to be here too long," Damon says, and Caroline just nods, because she understands.

They go around the side of the house, as opposed to through the front door. She has left the window to her bedroom open, and the slight night time breeze wafts the gauze curtains back and forth. Caroline and Damon climb into her house. Damon immediately assesses her room, notes that her door is closed but he's been here before so he knows that Liz's bedroom is not far off. What he doesn't expect is to see Tyler sitting on Caroline's bed, looking up at him.

Damon growls.

"No." Caroline tells Damon off as if he is a dog who has behaved badly. Ironic. "We're all in this together. Tyler has proved to you that he's trustworthy."

Damon still doesn't like it. His lip is stays curled, even though he stops snarling.

Caroline goes into the way that Liz had listened to everything Caroline had to say, this second time. The way that she'd asked if she wanted orange juice, and stumbled over it because Caroline didn't need to drink orange juice.

"I'd just started describing how I can drink it, but that it doesn't do me any good..."

"Get on with it," Damon insists, quietly.

Tyler glares at him and Damon ignores it.

"Right," Caroline says. "She asked me if I was her little girl. She so much wanted me to be. After I convinced her I was, I tried to see if her acceptance of me could extend as far to you as well, Damon, cause she knows you're her friend."

Years ago, people would have been right to say that Damon didn't have 'friends', just people he got to do stuff for him, or people he _made_ do stuff for him. Mystic Falls has been one hell of an experience. Not only did it boast the doppelganger of his first love, but Damon had not one but two firm friends. He concentrates on maintaining an impassive expression as Caroline tells her story, not willing to let Tyler know how much the potential loss of Liz's friendship upset him.

"That was when she started asking questions," Caroline finished. "It's like... she can't trust you unless she knows you haven't fed on her and forced her to forget it, or something. I dunno." Caroline shrugs her shoulders, as though the workings of her mother's mind are a mystery to her.

Damon realises why he keeps on forgetting that she's a vampire, and not just some foolish 17 year old girl.

"So what have you told her?" Damon asks, steadily ignoring Tyler's presence in the room.

Caroline draws herself up. "I've told her that you've always been a good friend to her, and that you proved that you were looking after this town against the other vampires who came here when you made sure she and the council had all that vervain. She didn't ask me about Vickie or-"

"I didn't do it." Caroline stares at him in shock, as well she might, as he's just declared a bald-faced lie. Even Tyler's looking skeptical. "That's what you say, Caroline. It's very simple."

"Oh." Her head dips, and her hair falls in front of her face before she brushes it back impatiently. "Of course. I knew that."

Damon closes his eyes, feeling grateful he's made the time to come speak to Liz himself. "So what is dog-boy doing here?"

"Dog-b-!" Tyler starts, but Caroline averts a new potential breakout of violence by getting there first.

"He's here because he's in the same situation as us," Caroline tells Damon, before nudging Tyler. "Tell him, Tyler."

Tyler looks up at Caroline. The glare is still there on his face from when he was looking at Damon. "I think my mom knows I'm a werewolf," he says, switching back to Damon. "I'm not sure. Maybe she just suspects. But she's seen too damn much to stay oblivious to it all."

"And what does she think?" Carol's a harder mark than Liz. She'd never warmed up to Damon, even without knowing he was a vampire. Actually, Damon's not sure he's ever seen Carol Lockwood warm to anyone, except perhaps her own son.

"She thinks..." Tyler shrugs, frustrated all of a sudden. "Fuck, how the hell should I know what she thinks? It's not like we talk about anything important in our house. For all I know, she knew about Mason too..."

The sentence trails off, and the hostility rises up between Damon and Tyler again. If Tyler starts anything, Damon's sure as hell ready to put him down. He came back from a werewolf bite once, and be damned if he's going to let Stefan's sacrifice go to waste.

Stefan's sacrifice...

"I have to go," Damon says abruptly, moving towards the window suddenly.

"But Damon, wait..!" Caroline is there, between Damon and the window, before Damon can blink.

Damon attempts to stare her down. "Get out of the way, Caroline."

"No," she replies obstinately. She crosses her arms over her chest. Out of the corner of his eye, Damon sees Tyler standing. "Not until you tell me what's going on?"

For a moment, Damon imagines throwing Caroline across the room, then discounts the idea. It would make too much noise, for starters. Also, what's he going to do? Run on after Stefan? Without knowing where Klaus and Stefan might be? Leaving Elena alone in Mystic Falls without either one of her boyfriends?

Because, if Damon was right, maybe this breakup thing is as fake as the one Katherine had prompted.

No. If they're going to do anything about Stefan and Klaus, and they are, it's going to be after Elena has gotten a full night sleep. She hasn't had one in way too long, and she deserves at least that.

"Look, I don't know what I said, man..." Tyler starts in apology.

Damon cuts him off. "Nothing you said," he says, brooding heavily, and glancing towards the wall in the direction he knew Liz's bedroom lay. "What time does your mom get up, Caroline?"

*

Stefan expected... He didn't know what he expected. It certainly wasn't this: sipping cocktails at a high class establishment with Klaus as though they were not two vampires, Damon had not almost died, and Klaus had not secured Stefan's agreement to come with him on a killing spree that had seemed to have an expectation of a great deal of America behind it.

Instead, Klaus took Stefan shopping. The older vampire raised an eyebrow when Stefan had, at first, balked at walking into the designer boutique.

“You agreed to do whatever I said... remember?” Klaus paused, looking back at him with one eyebrow raised, speaking to him in that silky tone that promised exquisite punishment if he reneged. Stefan could not remember the last time he had been so full of human blood, and yet he craved more. He always craved more.

They had picked several high class suits for each of them. Klaus had been every inch the charming, European businessman, slumming it in America for a time, or perhaps taking up an investment in this foreign country. When it came to the time of paying for their purchases, Stefan stepped very deliberately towards the salesman, only stopping when Klaus grabbed his arm and spoke very softly.

“Now, now, we don't kill the sellers of such wonderful clothing. It's art. We don't kill art, Stefan.” Klaus looked Stefan up and down seeing, Stefan knew, the ready signs of hunger, the way that Stefan was already chomping at the bit like a wild animal for another kill. “We'll feed you again soon. I promise.” It was easier just after consuming the blood. The craving went away, and Stefan almost thought he was thinking like his old self again.

The salesman behind the counter never heard what Klaus was saying. No doubt, he'd already assumed they were a couple, for he didn't flicker an eyelash at seeing them standing so close together when he'd turned from the cash register to tell them the cost of their shopping.

After that, they fed. Klaus had indulged too. It was a lot easier to hide one's kills in a large city while one was still wishing to hide themselves. Wiping out small country towns wasn't Klaus' plan. Yet. He'd spent a lot of time with the single minded purpose of creating himself immortal. There would be a time for all out killing again after the preliminary stages of the celebration had passed.

Klaus was flirting with the wait-staff of the establishment they currently found themselves in. He would be popular with pretty much anyone who heard him speak. Stefan was less interested. Full as he was, female companionship was still not high on his priorities. He stared impassively off into the distance, in the dregs of his fifth cocktail, mind clear enough that he could think of Damon, and Elena.

*

"You don't understand." Damon's eyes flash as Alaric opens his mouth to say something. "Stefan's an idiot."

Alaric closes his mouth. "Okay," he accedes. "That's not what I was going to say."

"How does this help anything, Damon?" Elena asks. She woke up to a strange light in Damon's eyes where there had been only despair before, whether his own, or her own reflected. After days of obligation having been the only thing that was moving them forward, this feels a little bit too much like the days before Klaus and Stefan disappeared. “Stefan left, Damon.”

“Elena...” Damon waits a moment to make sure that she has finished her say before stepping across the living room in the Gilbert family house, and kneeling in front of her legs. “If Stefan's really done this... if he's bargained my life with his own freedom... I have to do this. You know I have to set him free.”

“But what if he hasn't?” Damon winces at the pain in Elena's eyes. He knows that she is responding from fresh pain. She's experienced so much of it lately. He can understand, but...

Alaric interjects where Damon has no words. “Elena.” Both Damon and Elena look up to him as he speaks. “It sounds like something Stefan would do.”

Damon has only one thing to add to that. “Elena. He's my brother.” Okay, maybe two things, “I'm not going to get killed.”

As Elena meets his eyes this time, she sees what he's not saying. Though he's not going to abandon Elena for him, it won't settle comfortably on him if he abandons Stefan for her.

Damon has never been one to be idle when danger was afoot. If he was usually causing it, that doesn't make it less true.

Elena's breath shudders out of her. There's a pause, and then she gives a brief nod. Damon thinks, if that's all he'll get, then he's going to take it. Sitting back on his haunches, he evaluates the rest of the room, to Alaric who's keeping a safe distance, to Jeremy and Anna, to Caroline who's wearing her most sympathetic expression, to Tyler...

What are you even doing here? he wants to ask of Tyler, but he doesn't. Caroline said something about werewolf information gathered by Jules that she thinks might be helpful.

“Since Klaus is part werewolf, and all!”

Damon just thinks she wants her new boyfriend to be part of their little niche, now that he's back. He turns his attention back to Alaric.

“Ric, what do you think of all this?”

“I don't know...” He looks towards Jeremy, and then back to Elena. “I don't know what we can do against Klaus. The more of us who go, I suppose, the better chance we'll have...”

“If you go, Jeremy will still be safe,” Anna says quickly, having correctly interpreted the look Alaric shot in their direction.

Alaric looks grateful. Elena feels resigned to what he says next.

“If you love him, Elena, don't you want to save him?”

She cringes, because the answer is no; she doesn't want to save him. And isn't that a good enough answer after everything that's gone on, everything she's been put through, and all the times she's nearly died, and already caused her friends to come near death already? No, she wants to save herself. She wants to save Damon, and Alaric, and Caroline, and even Tyler. She wants to be with Bonnie, who had opted out on this 'meeting' when Caroline had told her about it. She wants...

“We just had Jenna's funeral,” she says, as this sums up everything she's been feeling. “It _just happened_.”

Alaric looks down, looks abashed, but Elena wonders if this isn't something that he wants to do to get him away from Mystic Falls for a little while, away from all the memories. Elena just can't see how entertaining more death is going to make this better for any of them.

Damon's still kneeling at her legs, rubbing her knee gently with the pad of his thumb. She can't fault his motivations, and he doesn't say anything. At any other time in the past, she would have been so proud of Damon for pushing to save his brother like this, she had been proud of Damon for doing exactly this before.

Surprisingly, it is Tyler who comes in and saves the day.

“What about Bonnie? Didn't you say Bonnie's a witch?” he asks, turning to Caroline.

Caroline shakes her head, just once. “She said she doesn't want to be a part of his,” she whispers, as though she's afraid to let anyone else hear.

“Okay. But she's just one witch. There's another witch we could ask just two towns over. Jules introduced us, and she's cool.” Everyone in the lounge room, except Caroline, looks at him because they don't know where he is coming from. Realising this, Tyler backs up a couple of steps. “A locator spell. I mean, we can't just go after Stefan if we don't know where we're going, right?”

Alaric and Damon look at each other. Because, no, that totally isn't exactly what they've been thinking.

“And,” Caroline continues, as though this is the far more important point to be made. “It gives Elena a couple more days to grief her aunt's death in peace.” She steps away from Tyler, and nears Elena around Damon. “That's what you want, isn't it? You deserve it, there's nothing wrong with how you're feeling.”

After the feelings of guilt that Elena had been ready to pile onto herself, this is a welcome reassurance. Elena reaches out a hand to take Caroline's, and smiles. “Thanks Caroline,” she says.

“That's what I'm here for,” Caroline answers, with a bright smile of her own. “Anytime.”

*

Knocking on the window of his room, Caroline waves shyly when Matt first pushes aside the curtains, and then opens the window to let her in. She's going to have to give him a reason for why she'll be out of town for a little while, but not right now.

He says to her, “You know you don't have to crawl in through the window.”

She smiles at him absently. When she curls into his arms, he knows better than to ask her what's wrong.

“Sometimes,” she told to him once, “it's so great to have someone to go to who isn't involved in all the crap.”

*


	4. Chapter 4

Damon stays in contact with Elena every day that they are gone from Mystic Falls, making sure she never has to worry, making sure she never feels abandoned. In the end, the crux point of their mission takes less than a full hour.

“Are you sure this is the place?” says Alaric.

“We've been travelling for days. Mischa said days. And then a clearing. And then...” Tyler shuts up, and instead directs his head to the town that Jules' witch promised they would find Stefan and Klaus in.

“It's really quiet.” Caroline says.

“Not if you guys don't stop talking.” Damon. With a glare for all of them.

He starts making his way through the clearing, sticking to the circle of trees where he can, moving silently at all times. Alaric is likewise practiced at making himself silent when he moves. Of all of them, Tyler is the loudest as he trumps through the grass until, in a moment born of frustration and not knowing what else to do, Caroline turns around and picks him up, carrying him the rest of the way through.

“I hope you plan on keeping to the plan,” Alaric says ahead of them, in a voice too low for even Tyler to pick up on. “Reconnaissance only. We can't take Klaus on directly after last time.”

“I'm not a moron, Ric.” But in his head, Damon knows he's going to separate himself from the rest of them at the earliest point possible. For a moment, his heart twinges in guilt as he thinks of Elena but, as he knows he's going to get out of it just fine, he doesn't let that twinge bother him.

Caroline's deathly afraid that Klaus, and even Stefan, are going to know they are here before they even get close. What does a one year old vampire know about sneaking up on a couple of hundred years old vampire and his thousand year old mentor? But, as they come close, Caroline realises why they never had a chance of sensing them coming at all.

Carnage, of the kind Caroline has never seen, of the kind Mystic Falls has certainly never seen. The sight of it fills her vision until she wants to retch, and she viciously wishes for orange juice to be able to sustain her over blood. That Stefan could have done...

“Oh god,” Caroline whispers, before she can stop herself.

“Shh,” Alaric says.

Damon is mesmerised. Just the sight of it brings him back to his days with Stefan before Lexi turned him all self-righteous. Stefan is not at all rusty for being unpracticed. He wonders, for a second, if Klaus might have gotten more than he bargained for, before a loud laugh grabs his attention.

“Bravely done, my friend. Bravely done! Does that feel better?”

A pause, and then Stefan replies. “Yes. Much better.”

Damon feels sickened. For a moment, he completely forgets about the others standing in the shadows with him, forgets about Elena.

“We need to go,” Caroline whispers. Damon's the only one who can hear her, and he ignores her. “We need to go _now_.”

Though Alaric doesn't hear the words Caroline is saying behind him, he reaches the same decision and grabs Damon, ready to drag him away from here before Klaus comes close to finding them.

Damon doesn't fight him, because fighting would create noise. Still, it's several moments before Damon can focus on Alaric's face, before Damon can see anything except for Stefan's bloody face and hands and shirt. He was still gripping that dead girl as though she was a life-line...

Alaric's saying the same things over and over again, doing little more than mouthing them. Damon eventually pieces the words together.

“We have to get out of here. Right now.”

Damon blinks a couple of times, sees Caroline's concerned face, and Tyler's pale one. He nods just once, before allowing himself to be led back through the clearing by Alaric and Caroline.

It seems like hours before the sick feeling in Damon's gut subsides. What is he going to tell Elena? What is he going to tell himself? Did he do this? Did his being stupid enough to get bit cause this to happen? Or did Stefan want this? He'd come so close to this just over a year before. Maybe he'd been waiting for something like this to happen, craving it, so that when Klaus offered him a way out, he jumped at it. From the looks of it, Klaus would probably just have felt generous after that.

“Damon. Damon!”

Caroline's violent shaking of him brings him out of his thoughts and back to himself.

“Leave him alone, Caroline,” says Alaric. He sounds weary. Damon's eyes meet Alaric's, and there is a moment of silent understanding between them.

Damon thought he would have preferred to see his brother being tortured again at the hands of the boorish Frederick in Pearl's house to this.

“We need a plan.” Caroline again. She's breathing rapidly. The fact that vampires don't need to breathe is often lost in times of great stress. Damon can't make himself bring it up. Tyler, stands in for him, putting his hand on Caroline's arm. “What?” she asks, her eyes darting among the three boys. “We do need a plan.”

“Not right now, Caroline,” Alaric says, rubbing the bridge of his nose as though he too wished to be able to unsee everything that they'd been confronted with.

“If not right now, what are we going to do if Stefan and Klaus come here next?” Caroline demands.

“We're going to leave before that happens.” Damon's voice is a harsh rasp. He doesn't wait for Caroline to object. “There's nothing we can do. Not without getting us all killed. And Stefan seemed... willing.”

“Damon...” Alaric starts.

“I've seen that before, Ric.” Damon shakes his head. “It took Lexi stopping Stefan from doing whatever he wanted last time, and I'm no Lexi.” He sighs and, for the first time, truly regrets giving Lexi up to Liz as a scape goat. Then despair hits him again. “I don't even know that Lexi could stand up against Klaus.” A pause, then, “This is what Stefan's really like.”

“So what? We've found him, and now we just leave?” Caroline is incredulous. “He's your brother, Damon!”

“Keep your voice down,” Damon hisses. Tyler is suspiciously silent. Damon glares at him, willing to fight against them all if necessary. He needs a fight right now, preferably one that he can win. “I suppose you agree with your girlfriend?”

Tyler sits up, as though surprised to have the spotlight suddenly shone on him.

“I... uh... no...” Tyler says, flushing as Caroline startles beside him. He continues, obviously nervous, “I mean, I didn't like him that much before this. Always figured he was hiding something.”

Caroline tries to launch into another outburst, but Damon's stare quells her.

“We can't do nothing,” she says, meekly.

“That's exactly what we're going to do.” Damon looks to Alaric, the one person here whose opinion might actually sway him, but Alaric is looking back at him, nodding slowly.

“I agree with Damon,” Alaric says softly and after a long pause.

Caroline exhales heavily.

*

The recriminations start in earnest on their drive back to Mystic Falls. Caroline vents her entire opinion on the subject of leaving Stefan behind, despite Tyler's trying to hush her and, once, Alaric's losing his temper. That causes a stunned half hour of silence, before her grumbling begins.

Even though the likely option was never to bring Stefan back, so much as to understand where he'd gone, and what state he was in, Damon feels the guilt rising up. He never got close enough to ask him anything, why he'd gone with Klaus, if he'd done it to save him. Yeah, he could say to Caroline that Stefan was the monster who had shown him how to be a monster, but he'd never said as much to Elena. Deep down, he knows he'll just keep that to himself. And so long as he's keeping things to himself...

“Stop the car.” Damon interrupts one of Caroline's diatribes to give his order.

She's in the process of asking him a question as the car stops, and then Damon is out of the car and gone.

“Wow,” Tyler says, obviously trying to make light of it. “I didn't realise vamps still needed to go to the toilet so bad.”

There's a pause, and then Alaric yells, “See what you've made him do? Fuck!”

Caroline's eyes widen in fear, but the next thought only takes a second to process through her mind. She is out of the car and speeding in the direction of the town that they've just come from.

Left in the backseat with Tyler, Alaric just utters, “ _Fuck._ ”

*

Stefan is standing alone when Damon comes back. He scans the surrounding area for any sign of Klaus, but sees nothing.

“You can come out now.” That's Stefan. Damon can't remember the last time he heard his brother sound so... not like his brother.

Knowing full well that he could be stepping out into an ambush, Damon takes all the precautions he can with acquainting himself with the layout of the place, and then steps forward.

“You came after me.” Stefan doesn't sound particularly pleased about this.

Damon pushes on. “You didn't give me a lot of choice. Taking off the way you did. Naughty naughty.”

“I've done worse since.”

Damon's eyes narrow. “Why?”

Stefan laughs. Damon doesn't like that, doesn't like it at all.

“Why, Stefan? Why the fuck did you leave?”

“Why I went doesn't matter anymore.” Stefan's dismissive, despite Damon's displays of emotion.

“It matters to me!” In that moment, Damon almost doesn't care if Klaus comes upon them. “Is it because of me that you've done this?”

Stefan pauses, then turns his head to the side. “We both knew I couldn't continue on the _rabbit_ diet forever.”

“So you wanted this.” It's like a punch to the cut to Damon. He forces out the next words. “Don't you care? About Elena? About me? Don't you care about anything?”

“Go, Damon. Just go.” His eyes shift to the side, and Damon knows he has seen Caroline behind him. Damon knew he only had a limited head start.

What he doesn't know Stefan sees is the vervain dart in her hand.

Stefan takes a step back and, right then, it's almost as though his humanity is resurfacing.

Then, “Take him,” he says, almost as though he doesn't care, and Damon shudders as vervain is injected into his system.

Caroline takes Damon's weight in her hands as he slumps, but she doesn't disappear right away. “You mean it then?” she asks him. “You really don't care?”

Stefan sighs. “Take Damon and go back to Alaric and Tyler.”

Caroline's eyes widen. This time, she does disappear right away.

Klaus steps out, clapping his hands together slowly.

“Laudably played, my boy,” he says. There is a smile on his lips, but his eyes are cruel. “Shall we onto the next place?”

*

“I've got him.”

Tyler moves himself out of the way as Caroline shoves a still hazy Damon into the backseat next to Alaric.

“Not... going to... forgive you... for this...” Damon gets out eventually.

“Maybe not,” Caroline says, her lips a thin line. “But Elena will.”

Damon just closes his eyes.

He tells himself that they could check in with Jules' witch again in a couple of months, see if tires of his new toy by then. Or simply try to separate the two before then.

The car ride back to Mystic Falls is long. Alaric calls Elena from Damon's phone because it's that time of day. Damon can just vaguely make out Elena's worried voice on the phone.

“Hang on, Elena, let me just pass the phone down to him,” Alaric says.

“Damon? Damon, is that you? Are you okay?”

Damon's eyelids flutter shut at the reminder of what he fights for. “Yeah darlin'... I'm here...”

“You're hurt! What's happened?”

“Nothing... to worry about... Caroline just stopped me... doing something dumb...”

His eyes meet Caroline's in the rear view mirror, and he knows there are going to be no more talks about what they are going to do to help Stefan from now on. Maybe she doesn't believe he's quite the monster Damon knows him to be, but she's seen the way he doesn't care. For now, that's enough.

*

The four of them return to Mystic Falls just after sunset. Caroline murmurs something about going to visit Matt, and Tyler offers to drive her. Alaric has to assist Damon onto the couch at the boarding house, after they pick Elena up on the way.

“Just until the vervain wears off,” Alaric says, explaining away Damon's weakness.

None of them tell Elena what they saw on the trail that Jules' witch set them on. Elena offers her own blood to him to aid the effects of vervain wearing off, but Damon opts for the blood bags. Nothing is less appealing to him than drinking from Elena in the aftermath of witnessing Stefan's destruction.

Later, Caroline tells her about the way that she and Alaric acted as a shield between Damon and danger. The images Caroline paints are amusing and draw out some of Elena's first willing laughter out the darkness she's been shut away in.

"He was never in any danger, Elena. We made sure of it," Caroline finishes, with all the seriousness that Caroline Forbes can summon.

Elena finds herself glad Damon isn't there to hear of Alaric, a human, being part of 'making sure' Damon 'was never in any danger'. The thought of it brings another smile.

When she tries to get particulars, however, Caroline is as closed-mouthed as Damon. Nothing more than a terse shake of her head is relinquished, no answers on why the matter is being kept from her leads into other answers that Elena can speculate on later. She doesn't hear about Alaric dragging Damon away before Klaus came close to finding them, the way that Damon snuck away from the rest of them, nor about Caroline injecting him with vervain or why.

Damon is different for a while after they return, but he doesn't tell her the reason for that, either. Elena does her best to return the support that he'd been so amazing in giving her from the time of Jenna's death to his return from trying to track down Stefan.

That the venture had given the rest of them a kind of closure is clear. Elena, having stayed in Mystic Falls with Jeremy and Anna, feels like she's missed out on that closure.

*

Day 16 of No Vampires or Vampire-Werewolf Hybrids Trying to Kill Elena Gilbert.

It feels good, if surreal. Damon's arm curls around her as they settle to watch a movie that's one one of the channels of the television that Elena just arranged an antenna for. There are quite a few feminine touches in the house that announce there is very definitely a woman living here with her vampire boyfriend.

As the rolling credits headed up towards the top of the screen, announcing the end of the movie, Day 17 of No Vampires or Vampire-Werewolf Hybrids Trying to Kill Elena Gilbert begins.

Damon is asleep on the couch.

“Not very creature of the night of you,” Elena murmurs.

Without vampire strength, she has no hope of lifting him up to the bed where they've been sleeping together upstairs. Instead, she reaches over the back of the couch to pull a blanket around them both. In his sleep, Damon pulls her closer to him and Elena has one of the best nights sleep since the Salvatore brothers first came to town.


End file.
